Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

INDIANOLA – Mitch Wieland isn’t the first coach to get a good feeling about an upcoming game based on what has happened at practice.

While Wieland liked how his Liberty High team prepared for its playoff opener on Friday it was something else the first-year head coach saw this week at practice that gave him confidence.

With Halloween just a few days away Liberty High players floated the idea of wearing costumes to practice on Thursday.

The Liberty High seniors nixed the idea, opting for another day of work over a fun potentially final practice.

Wieland noticed.

“They wanted to wear costumes to practice and the seniors shot it down, they said this is a business trip,” Wieland said. “I’m all about fun, I kind of put it in their hands and they ultimately chose to come and work and focus on that and take it as a business trip and as soon as I saw that I’m not going to lie to you I knew we were going to go out there and win.”

Liberty High had its fun on the field on Friday.

Emerson Berner threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns, two each to seniors Leo Rozz and Pryor Reiners as Liberty High downed Indianola (7-3) in a Class 5A playoff opener at Indianola Stadium.

The win sends Liberty High (7-3) to the 5A quarterfinals for the third consecutive season.

The Lightning will play at Ankeny (8-2) on Friday, seeking a third straight trip to the state semifinals.

Ankeny defeated Waukee 43-37 on Friday.

“We were coming over here to win the game,” Reiners said. “We know what it’s like to play in these games and how to win these games and whether we are on the road or whatever we are coming to win games.”

Liberty High trailed 7-0 after the opening quarter as Indianola struck first on a 22-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Nolan Freeman to George Blake with 39 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.

The Lightning responded with two touchdowns in span of less than three minutes.

Berner hit Reiners for a 23-yard touchdown pass to cap an eight-play, 71-yard drive on the ensuing Liberty High possession.

The Lightning recovered an onside kick and took a 14-7 lead four plays later when Berner hit Rozz for a 9-yard scoring strike.

“A lot of the guys have been in this spot and we knew what we had to do,” Berner said. “We’ve been here but everyone is hungry to show we can win these types of games.”

After failing to produce points on its opening two possessions Liberty High scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions to take control of the game.

Indianola tied the game at 14-14 on a 4-yard strike from Freeman to Parker Amos with 4:43 remaining but the Liberty High offense answered.

Liberty High marched 75 yards in 10 plays and took a 21-14 lead when Berner found Rozz on a screen pass for a 12-yard touchdown and a seven-point halftime lead.

“It was just getting settled in,” Berner said. “This was our first playoff game and I would say the nerves were a little high for every one including me. It was really just settled in and getting with the flow of the game and after that we were clicking.”

The Lightning opened the second half with a 6-play, 61-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a diving 34-yard touchdown grab by Reiners.

“That was a great throw, a perfect ball,” Reiners said. “I wasn’t sure how I wanted to try to catch it when it was in the air but he just put it in a perfect spot.”

The Liberty High defense did the rest.

Liberty High limited Indianola to 50 yards of total offense in the second half and forced four second-half turnovers.

Reiners picked off a pair of passes, senior Adrian Clerry had an interception and Hank Thompson recovered a fumble.

“We knew we had to flip the switch,” Clerry said. “If we wanted to keep playing, we knew what it took to win the game and we had to flip that switch.”

Berner finished 28-of-40 for 316 yards and four touchdowns with Reiners catching eight passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns.

“He was awesome, he made a lot of really good decisions,” Wieland said of Berner. “He is really starting to focus in on that risk reward and he is doing such a good job of weighing that which is so hard when the bullets are flying.”

Clerry had even receptions for 64 yards and senior Brody Beaver rushed for 110 yards as Liberty High rolled up 463 yards of total offense.

“It feels great,” Clerry said. “We want to keep playing as long as we can. I just love playing with these guys.”

                                       ICL                 IND

First downs                23                    12

Rushes-yards             31–147             18-84

Comp-Att-Int            28-42-0           12-23-3

Passing yards             316                  141

Total yards                463                  225

Punts-Avg.                 1-38                 2-30

Fumbles-lost              1-1                   2-1

Penalties-yard           10-58               2-20                     

Liberty High              0  21  7  0  –  28

Indianola                     7   7   0  0  –  14 

IND – George Blake 22 pass from Nolan Freeman (Kian Ruiz kick)

ICL – Pryor Reiners 23 pass from Emerson Berner (Andrew Strathman kick)

ICL – Leo Rozz 9 pass from Berner (Strathman kick)

IND – Parker Amos 4 pass from Freeman (Ruiz kick)

ICL – Rozz 12 pass from Berner (Strathman kick)

ICL – Reiners 34 pass from Berner (Strathman kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICL: Brody Beaver 23-110, Leo Rozz 5-16, Emerson Berner 1-19, Cooper Lester 1-3, Pryor Reiners 1-(-1). IND: Daxton Heimbaugh 9-36, Nolan Freeman 6-33, Parker Amos 1-17, Max Martinez 1-2, Team 1-(-4).

PASSING – ICL: Emerson Berner 28-40-0 316, Brody Beaver 0-1-0 0, Adrian Clerry 0-1-0 0. IND: Nolan Freeman 8-14-1 108, Bo Blake 4-9-2 33.

RECEIVING – ICL: Pryor Reiners 8-153, Adrian Clerry 7-64, Cooper Lester 6-30, Leo Rozz 4-34, Ethan Meidlinger 2-11, Tate Rettig 1-24. IND: Parker Amos 5-58, Max Martinez 4-56, George Blake 2-30, Lucas Gordon 1-(-3).

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